Research and Lab - Meet the Team

Caitlin Lowes

Laboratory Lead

"I've recently been promoted to Laboratory Lead, a role which brings new challenges and responsibilities, which is good because I'm hungry and excited for the development and growth this can bring. We also have brand new facilities, which are much more spacious and modern and should provide us with more opportunities, whereas the older lab we had outgrown.

Our daily routine involves water testing to ensure the water used in our laundry processes is clean and free of microbes and contaminants. We also test the garments which are processed for particulates and fibre contamination and carry out environmental monitoring in all of our cleanrooms. We also aid R&D in the development of prototypes and new products, which hopefully don't proverbially blow up in our faces during testing!

On a personal level I genuinely love my job, I'm a very get up and go type of person and my days are so different, especially when unexpected things happen, which I find exciting. The variety in my job is fulfilling and makes time go by incredibly quickly, having worked at Micronclean for 3 years now I didn't expect for how quickly my progression has been so far, but this must mean I'm doing well and that in itself is a confidence booster."

Paulo Geraldo

Laboratory Textile Specialist

Paulo has been with Micronclean for 4 years, originally as lab technician then a research scientist and is now working in a newer position as a textile specialist, mainly focusing on the wash trials for fabrics and garments.

"I'm excited with the new lab because we now have the chance to do additional testing with these improved facilities. There is now more equipment to do testing on fabrics, with better conditions and more space to conduct multiple fabric tests. It is a huge change with the investment and recognition we've been given and we're yet to fully exploit the potential we have here.

Now that we have the wash trial facilities planned and hopefully coming to life this year, I'll be able to look into the chemistry of things, to see how washing chemistry will interact with fabrics and to develop and optimise the process because there is always room for improvement. In terms of innovation, we need to always know how the garment behaves during these processes so we can stay on top of new developments and technologies."